


Cloud

by Tortellini



Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pre-Canon, Angst, Child Death, Childhood, Childhood Trauma, Cloud Watching, Clouds, Developing Friendships, Friendship, Gen, Pre-Canon, Pre-Season/Series 01, Prompt Fill, Wordcount: 100-500
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:27:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23143150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tortellini/pseuds/Tortellini
Summary: Written circa 2013 by my mother, actually, and published now on a whim--a young Thomas Barrow, bitter and alone, meets a little street urchin boy and has a conversation with him...about unicorns, of all things. No slash.Oneshot/drabble
Kudos: 18





	Cloud

He sat, gazing at the clouds, wondering for the millionth time why nobody was nice to him. Nobody talked to him. Or even smiled back... 

"That one looks like a unicorn," a small voice drawled.

He jumped. "What?"

"Unicorn. See?"

He turned and a small boy, skinny and dirty, was pointing up. 

"Stupid sissy thing to say," he muttered. The small boy's face fell.

He reminded Thomas of his little brother just then. Thomas hadn't thought of him in a long time, not since he'd gotten sick--and they'd all gotten sick and he was too sick to go to his own brother's funeral--

He swallowed, rubbed a sleeve across his eyes. "Y' daft," he told the boy. "Looks like a dragon. See the teeth?" He turned, watched the boy considering his words. "But there," he pointed in the other direction. "Now that's a proper unicorn, yeah?"

The boy rocked back on his heels and squinted up at the sky. 

Thomas pulled a biscuit from his pocket. He broke it in half, held a piece out to the boy. 

"Fancy a bite?"

Maybe he'd found a friend after all. Maybe. 


End file.
